There’s been a buzz of talk and images recently about a Beach Stone-curlew that has been visiting Inverloch in Victoria, way out of its usual comfort zone.
Bush Stone-curlew (Burhinus grallarius)
1/640, f/5.6, ISO 3200
I took the above image a few weeks ago, of a captive bird – they have incredibly evocative expressions. Beach and Bush Stone-curlews are similar species. The lighting was poor and to keep a reasonable shutter speed I kept the aperture wide open, which resulted in the eye and nostril being sharp while other parts of the image fall to softness.
I haven’t been able to look for the Inverloch bird but did check the detailed snapshot provided by The New Atlas of Australian Birds (1998-2002) where is no record of Beach Stone-curlews coming so far south, though I’ve heard comments about a previous visitor to the area about 10 years ago. The Atlas is a fabulous resource of data gathered by approximately 7000 surveyors, all of whom are listed in the tome. I thoroughly enjoyed my commitment to do a regular 2 hectare Atlas survey and often consult the book when planning a trip or confirming the likelihood of an unexpected sighting.
If interested you could check a previous post, Bush Stone-curlew, for more information and comments about different backgrounds that looks practically identical to me now.
Happy birding, Kim
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